Graham Tupper argues that development Northern Australia “needs to match the nature of the country and capitalize on its assets and its natural assets in the long term, not focus on the short term quarry vision” Southern.

That is only possible by conserving the oil and gas in the Beetaloo, Ceorgina, and Canning Basins and three proposed LNG sites around Darwin.The report by the US department of energy the prospect of large amount of oil and gas from shale is higher than existing reserves when Australian imports continue to rise.

Australian politicians don not know that he fracking technology that revitalized gas drilling in the USA could start an entirely new energy age of cheap energy. By releasing vast reservoirs of geothermal energy underneath our feet at depths of 1 to 7 Kilometres. Tapping only 2 percent of it could satisfy current annual U.S. energy use 2,000-fold for each and every year of the foreseeable future.

Fracking, may provide an economical way to get at that geothermal energy in Northern Australia . By pumping water or other fluids down deep beneath the surface. Hot rocks at depth boil the water into steam, which rises back to the surface to spin a turbine and generate electricity. With that in mind, the US Department of energy is focussing on better methods for geothermal prospecting, drilling and fracking that Australian can learn from. The problem is that today we do not know what the potential of geothermal is in Northern Australia

Fracking may provide a relatively inexpensive and accessible new source of energy, but if it comes at the cost of our clean underground water reservoirs, the price is too high. So far I have found no reason to trust the extractive industries on this.

The hot rocks are granite and the radio activity keeps them hot forever.
However, shale oil & gas will never be more than a short term patch up.

Its biggest problem is the amount of water needed and its well head cost.
However the real clanger is the decline rate, from 40% to 80%
a year !
That writes it off as any more than a money sink.